Geoffar was up to his elbows in pumpkin; he was still scooping seeds out when Ovistine slipped into the kitchen. "Oo! Pie?" she asked hopefully, batting her eyelashes at him.

"O'course," Geoffar said, grinning over at her. "Wouldnae be a Pilgrim's Bounty without me girl's favorite pie, now, would it?"

"That's what I say." Ovistine took a seat and bit her lower lip. "So, um. D'you think anyone would mind if I invited the elf for dinner?"

"Th' elf? Yeh mean Valinar?" Geoffar looked up. "Cannae imagine anybody'd mind havin' 'im about. He's a good lad."

"Oh, good, because I already invited him."

Geoffar laughed. "Oh, I see where this be goin'. Yeh wan' me t' run interference wi' Ellia an' Arktur, make sure it's a'right?"

"If you wouldn't mind…"

"O'course not. Th' lad got any family t' bring along with 'im?"

"Not that I know of. It turns out his parents are druids, so they're hibernating right now. And have been for a while, I guess." She frowned. "I wish I'd known sooner. I could have invited him last year. Or the year before…"

"Nae sense cryin' o'er spilt brew," Geoffar said. He was finished with the seeds now, and went over to the sink to rinse his hands off. "He'll be there this year, an' that's that."

Ovistine hopped off her stool and gave her father a hug, squeezing him tightly around the waist. "Thanks, Da. It'll be nice to have him here."

"Tha' it will." Geoffar tugged at one of her braids and got a giggle out of her. "Now then — does th' elf need any special food or whatnot? What's 'e like t' eat?"

"Oh, he's a fan of good dwarven cuisine." Ovistine's eyes glazed over a little. "He took me to the Barking Murloc not so long ago. He ordered goat sausage with smashed potatoes and a mustard-ale reduction…"

"So I dun need t' worry about servin' a great huge bird? Wha' with th' family bein' druidfolk an' all."

"Aughn! I didn't even think of that." Ovistine winced. "But he's cooked buzzard an' suchlike; I've never known him to avoid poultry…"

"Well, ask 'im if yeh get a chance. Otherwise me an' Arktur'll figure on jes' th' usuals."

"I'll ask. But I tell you what, I've never seen an elf quite as fond of dwarven food and drink than Valinar…" Ovistine smiled. "I think he'll be just fine."

* * *

"Ellie?" Arktur flapped his arms to get her attention over the noise of the forge; after a moment, Ellia glanced up from her work and put her hammer aside. "Jes' got a call frae Geoffar."

"Ooh, how's it with th' Lighthammers, then?" Ellia grabbed a cloth and wiped her face and hands off, trying to get at least a little cleaner. "Did Nancie finally get in touch with our favorite wee lass?"

"Aye, an' I got news." Arktur grinned broadly. "Ovi wants t' bring a lad t' Pilgrim's Bounty."

Ellia chuckled. "'Bout time. Who's th' lucky dwarf?"

"Well, it's no' exactly like that…"

"Oh." Ellia's face fell. "Jes' a friend, then?"

"Yeh want t' know th' truth, I couldnae quite get an answer out o' Geoffar… but apparently she goes pink in th' cheeks when they get t' talkin' about this 'un, so…"

"Well, then, what's 'no' exactly like that' about it?"

There was a moment of awkward quiet while Arktur worked up the nerve to actually say it out loud. "Th' lad's no' exactly a dwarf, yeh see…"

"Huh. Human?" Ovistine had, after all, grown up in Stormwind…

"Elf."

"Elf?" Ellia blinked a few times. "Elf? Th' bit's got herself an elf?"

"Herself an elf!" Arktur repeated, cutting loose with a loud guffaw. Ellia chuckled, too, but quickly got it under control.

"Well, I dun see any reason th' bit cannae 'ave an elf, should she want one. Yeh figured out what elves eat fer Pilgrim's Bounty?"

"Apparently he likes dwarf food an' drink. Served in Alterac Valley with th' Stormpike Guard, even lives in Thelsamar."

"Thelsamar!" Ellia's eyes lit up. "Damn sight closer than Stormwind, hey?"

"Mebbe I c'n take th' lad fishin'." Arktur grinned.

"Jes' dun scare th' lad too badly, aye?" Ellia tugged on one of Arktur's beard-braids. "But we'll see how it goes."

* * *

Ovistine was tempted to take the bowl of candied sweet potatoes Valinar had brought and bury her head in them. Between her grandpa Arktur's cheerful and pointed questions about Ovistine and Valinar's plans for the future, her grandma Ellia's mistaken belief that Valinar spoke no Dwarvish and she could therefore get away with anything she wanted, Geoffar's somewhat star-struck questions about just how Valinar had wrested Ironfoe from Emperor Thaurissan, and Uncle Brandur's amusement at the whole thing, she was rapidly rethinking this whole business of bringing Valinar home for Pilgrim's Bounty.

That didn't stop Arktur, or even slow him down. "Yeh'll bring 'im fer Winter Veil, aye?" he asked at the end of the evening. Ellia was busy packing up some dishes for Ovistine to take home; at least that meant one of Ovistine's relatives wasn't here to gaze up at Valinar and look expectant. Arktur, Nancie, Geoffar and Brandur were all waiting.

Valinar's left ear twitched, but his expression was impassive; Ovistine couldn't tell what he was thinking. Darn stoic elf. "It's a ways off," she said, stepping in. "He may be off fighting–"

"Back t' Alterac?" Nancie asked, eyebrows up. "Havenae been there fer months, meself; tell ol' Gaelden I said hey, if yeh would…"

"I'm afraid I've no plans to return to Alterac at present," Valinar said. His ear twitched again. "But if I do, I'll pass your greetings along."

Ovistine slipped her hand into the crook of Valinar's arm. "An' we'd best be going. Thank you all for the food and the company."

"Yes, thank you–" Valinar's polite thanks was interrupted by a sharp tug on his arm. While he didn't actually move much–mass being what it was, and Ovistine not being terribly strong–one look down at her expression left him backing toward the door along with her.

"Winter Veil! We'll 'ave elf-pies an' elf-wiches!" Arktur called after them. Ovistine waved, and she and Valinar headed into the streets of Ironforge, toward the stable where they'd left their rams.

"I'm so sorry," Ovistine said. She had a braid wrapped around her arm four or five times; Valinar hoped she'd be able to untangle herself without too much difficulty. "I didn't realize they were going to be so… so…"

"Your family is very nice," Valinar said. "Very… enthusiastic."

Ovistine groaned and unwrapped her braid from her arm, but it was only so she could put both hands over her face. Valinar steered her around a brazier and helped keep her on the path; she eventually looked up again. "Aye, an' I always forget that there's me, an' then there's Mum, who's like me but moreso, an' then there's Grandpa Ironhammer, an' he's…"

"…yes," Valinar filled in. "Well. I certainly felt welcome."

"Aye, but–I mean, some of the things they said–"

"I admit, I'm not sure that there are 'dwelfs'." Valinar's ear twitched again; he shook his head and tried to let his ears relax. "At least, I've never seen one…"

"Dwelfs," Ovistine moaned. "I can't believe he said that."

"'Bouncing baby dwelfs', I think, was his phrase."

Ovistine came to a stop again and looked up at Valinar. When that wasn't quite enough, she levitated, getting more or less up to face-to-face with him. "I just want you to know–I wasn't meaning to… to hint, or anything of that sort. I've never brought a lad to Pilgrim's Bounty. I didn't realize how they'd all take it." She bit her lower lip and glanced away. "I'm sorry it was so awkward."

"You make it sound as if I've never had a meal with dwarves before," Valinar said softly. "I'm glad your family liked me. I've had far more awkward experiences."

"Oh, it's not so much the dwarfiness–I mean, obviously, there was bound to be some of that, but–just–" She sighed, braids flapping out behind her. "You've been such a good friend. Family aside, that's what's important, hey?"

If there was a bit of droop to Valinar's ears, hearing that, it was nothing another pint of stout wouldn't cure. He nodded and smiled at her. "You're a very good friend, too, Ovistine."

She dropped back down from her levitate and smiled, but she wasn't quite meeting his eyes–admittedly, with her feet on the ground, it was a bit harder to manage. "Aye. Well. I suppose it's back to Stormwind for me. And yourself?"

"Back to Thelsamar, I guess. I can take the tram back with you, if you'd like. You never know when there's going to be another Horde invasion, and they often like to use the tram."

"Aye–how they get in there, I've never figured. Kobold tunnel, maybe?"

"Kobold tunnel, warlock summonings…"

The ride to Stormwind was never very long, but it felt shorter this time than usual. Valinar waved goodbye to Ovistine at the tunnel to the Dwarven District, and as she disappeared, he pondered whether a pint at the bar here might be better than waiting until he got home.

So at the moment I feel like I've got two choices:

* Retcon, retcon, retcon: Write out the Wrathgate story as I've always wanted to have it happen, and accept the fact that it fails several continuity checks. Rework anything I've written that contradicts it, and start RPing the Lighthammers as they'd be after the Wrathgate right now.

* Move the timeline: Wrathgate has happened, the Lighthammers made it through okay, and shift the Lighthammer events from Wrathgate to the opening of Icecrown Citadel.

Much as I loved the idea of setting it at Wrathgate, I think the continuity problems are going to bother me too much to do it there and then, and I think the major events of the Lighthammer storyline can be picked up and moved. Which means I should probably go ahead and let them both get their Wrathgate achievement, and this time around, stop dragging my heels.

Recapping the quest text for Pilgrim's Bounty:

Won't you celebrate Pilgrim's Bounty with us, <name>? It's a time for reflecting on your journeys and your good fortune, sharing plentiful food and stories with friends.

Teuthida is grateful to have such strong and generous and wonderful friends — with particular /hugs and /squees to Alishe, Alonora, Prydion, Israia, and of course Valyrie, who is a bit puzzled at the many, many pies Teu has been baking, but not so puzzled she won't eat them! The one thing that's giving Teu pause these days is that she's been feeling like her "job" — and adventuring really has become a job for her — keeps her away from Valyrie and Shattrath a lot more than she'd like. She misses spending time at home, at the orphanage, and she especially misses getting to sing and read to the tiny baby draenei. You may be hearing a loud ticking sound these days if you're standing too close to Teu, and it ain't a gyrochromaton.

Nancie finally got in touch with Ovistine and demanded requested Ovistine join her, Geoffar, Brandur, and the Ironhammer parents in Ironforge for Pilgrim's Bounty. Nancie is grateful that her family is still in one piece — her father, a retired mountaineer, still spends a lot of time fishing at Loch Modan, and her mother's still working at the forge, turning out battle hammers, blades, and making the occasional pair of mithril spurs. Her brother has a good job training paladins at the Mystic Ward. Ovistine is, more or less, safe. Nancie and Geoffar have a hard, struggling job out at Wintergarde, but they're managing. (And this is where I apologize for being slightly out of phase — ha! — with most people, because Wrathgate still hasn't happened for the Lighthammers. Sigh.)

Ovistine has returned from Darnassus, and this year she's incredibly grateful that, despite all the trials and tribulations the Boomsticks have been going through, they've got Homrend back and things look safer now than they have for a while. She's trying to focus on that, and not the way it feels to be cut off from the Light, because that's something she just can't deal with right now. She is also grateful for a certain elf, whom she's planning to invite to Pilgrim's Bounty with the Ironhammers. ("An' may the Light have mercy on his ears.")

Agness is grateful for her wonderful husband, her warm, comfy house in Northshire ("Kobold-Free For 13 days!"), her yarn stash, her new friends at the Shadoweave Knitting Circle, and the fact that Bizpit seems to have been too preoccupied with sulking lately to show up very often or chew on much of her yarn. She's not sure where little demons go for Pilgrim's Bounty, but hopefully he'll stay out of trouble.

Not so clear-cut these days! With new alts being rolled all the time, events that are brand-new to one character are things I did four or five years ago with one of mine. How do you deal with a character who's just found out that the Scarlet Crusade is being run by demons? "Oh, I've known that for years." "…*splutter* You could have told me before I went in there." Or is the news new to you again every time you hear it?

The more interesting question I'm thinking about right now is whether it's feasible to juggle a timeline somewhat — could a character of mine level up to 60, 70, even 80, without ever tackling some of the quests that should come up at 30, 40, 50? In RP/IC, could I get a character out to the Argent Tournament before she finishes the Wrathgate storyline?

Even WoW itself does some bending, folding, spindling, and mutilating to give people the opportunity to do the same quests without necessarily being at the same point in the story. Take Drakuru — if you've done his Grizzly Hills/Drak'Tharon Keep quests, you get one quest when you see him in Zul'Drak. If you haven't, you get a different one. Either way, though, you have the same goals, and people questing together can definitely work together on them.

As NaNo approaches and I hammer down some of the details in Nancie's life, I find myself pondering what order she might have taken things in. There are some quests she probably would have avoided at all costs when she was supposed to do them, but that would make perfect sense for her character now. But it's a pretty twisty timeline, the likes of which might get me a visit from the Office of Temporal Affairs, and I'm hesitant to go for it if it seems too jarring. The fact that my character could have skipped past things, that they'd make sense for her now in a way they wouldn't have then, doesn't necessarily mean it makes good game-and-RP sense to put the timeline in a weird and unexpected order.

I have two mages, neither one of whom has ever learned Polymorph: Pig or is interested in Polymorph: Turtle, Polymorph: Penguin, or Polymorph: Black Cat, because that would mean polymorphing something into an animal that is not a sheep. (In fact, they've both gotten to the stage in the Polymorph: Pig quest where you turn naga into tons of tiny little sheep, which then wander around at high velocity, and haven't turned it in, because when I'm feeling kinda blue, seeing fifty tiny sheep zipping around my computer screen can cheer me up pretty quick.)

I have also been known to make tons of extra Explosive Sheep and just have them wander around like pets. (One of them might possibly have pulled a boss in Zul'Gurub once. Luckily, my raid was very forgiving.)

When the Elwynn Lamb was announced, I was overjoyed! A pet sheep! I figured I would never unsummon it, letting it wander around and graze at its leisure. Instead, Blizzard decided it was the one pet that should get killed in front of its owner… time after time. When I found that out, I stopped bothering with the Argent Crusade dailies. I really didn't want to put in all that effort for a pet that would break my heart by dying repeatedly.

But! I have a thought. What if the Elwynn Lambs are actually sheep that have been reclaimed from Felwood's wild flocks of woolly fel sheep, and you're keeping them around to try to rehabilitate them? What if you've been assigned a protective wolf who will keep a close eye on that fel sheep to see if the demons have truly left it? What if the wolf is only killing the sheep because it's sensed the fel energies amassing, and it knows the sheep will attack you if the wolf doesn't get it first?

Yeah, okay, it's a stretch. But I want a sheep pet, dammit. And it so happens that I have run into evidence that fel lambs exist.

Sure, they say the sound those sheep make is a "snore", but when you first hear it, it sounds like some kind of demonic bleat that requires you to get that sheep back to the Cathedral of Light for an exorcism, stat. It's simultaneously adorable and horrifying!

(Really, my image of fel sheep is that they're sheep that act exactly like regular sheep, only their wool is chartreuse or sometimes a pale red — perhaps only changing color after the sheep reach maturity — and their eyes glow with demonic fire. Otherwise, they graze and wander the meadows like any other sheep. Their wool, however, once sheared, washed, carded, and spun, knits up into incredibly soft, unusually warm blankets.)

*Teu nods along, going from wide-eyed to squinting in confusion*

…no no, certainly you are not bunny! I–

*tugs pair of bunny ears off head, sells to vendor*

–am not understanding the ears, but–

*tugs another pair of bunny ears off head, sells to vendor*

–also the chocolates! The bunnies, they are laying the chocolates? I did not–

*third pair of ears goes to vendor*

–it is very strange holiday, this Noblegarden, with the bunnies and chocolates and ears and–

*fourth pair*

–for spring fertility ritual, but–

*fifth pair*

–ENOUGH ENOUGH EARS ENOUGH! Such a waste! I–

*horrified look*

OH! OH! How many bunnies go around without ears because of you people? Awful awful! Where are earless bunnies? I have healings! Poor earless bunnies!

*hurries off in search of earless bunnies*

Teuthida: It's not that she's not smart, but things really do get lost in the translation.  Teu tends to wander around with no idea what all the festivals and rituals are about, although she usually gets the hang of them pretty fast.  However, the people she's interacted with at Noblegarden have been too busy eating chocolate and chasing bunnies to explain what on earth's going on around there, and she hasn't been back to Azure Watch–where she could get an explanation in Draenei–for quite a while.